Although not exclusively, the present invention applies more particularly to an aircraft, in particular a transport airplane, that can run over the ground, in particular during acceleration and deceleration phases, with a view respectively to the takeoff and landing of said aircraft.
It is known that, during the phases of braking (deceleration) of a vehicle moving on the ground, for example an aircraft running over a runway during landing, it is frequently the case that the driver or pilot of this vehicle initially applies the maximum braking intensity permitted by the characteristics of the vehicle. When the latter reaches a speed much lower than its original speed corresponding to a stopping distance of a few meters, the pilot ceases this braking and maintains this speed until the desired stopping position is reached. This method of driving or of piloting guarantees to the pilot that the vehicle does not overshoot said desired stopping position.
However, this method has several drawbacks. Firstly, it results in increased invoking of the brakes, thereby causing them to wear prematurely. Secondly, having a phase of running at reduced speed often causes a prolonging of the time required to reach the desired stopping position.
The document GB-2 224 475 discloses a device making it possible to display a plurality of stopping distances of a vehicle on the windscreen of the latter. These stopping distances correspond to theoretical values for several predetermined speeds (the ones used most). This device therefore has a preventive role, but it does not make it possible to aid the driver during abrupt braking from a particular running speed.
Furthermore, the document U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,437 discloses a device making it possible to display in particular the stopping distance of an aircraft, representative of maximum braking. For the calculation of the stopping distance, this device takes account of parameters relating to the environmental conditions (state of the runway, weather, etc). This known device does not make it possible to aid the driver in the aforesaid braking situation. Moreover, the taking into account of environmental conditions makes it necessary to proceed to the acquisition of parameters related to the ground infrastructures, this having the drawback of rendering this known device dependent on said ground infrastructures.